Sorting out the More Prepared--Miracles come from Obedience

Letter #91
May 26, 2015
Area: Baytown
Companion: Hepworth

Well, it sounds like you all had an exciting week and were really excited to spend time with family and now welcome the new little Pence into the family.

This last week has gone really well. Even though we weren't really able to increase the number of lessons we had, we were able to make them more effective. These past couple of weeks we have had the wonderful opportunity to work with a less active family, the Lopez/Barajas family, that is extremely prepared and "golden," in that they are just ready to come back to church.  We have had the chance to speak with the younger siblings that are not currently members of the church. The little siblings are really excited about learning and they have accepted a baptismal date for the 6th of June! And the best part is, the mother, who is a less active member, is on board, she will let them go through with it! One of the best things about this family is that they love us, we saw them almost every day last week and they were loving it, they invited us over three times, came to mutual, a branch activity, and to church! We also saw a bunch of miracles in finding new people to teach, we are still sorting out the more prepared ones from the ones just willing to listen, and not act, but we are excited for the success that is coming.

Other than that, we have just been trying to clean up the branch list and find new investigators. We have been just seeing a ton of miracles come from obedience, then the days that we aren't quite as obedient, we struggle more. I have been seeing more of a correlation between obedience/faith and the blessings the longer I've been out. I remember the time that I went on exchanges with Elder Jones when I had only been out for almost 6 months and the success that we saw, teaching about 6 lessons and finding 8 new investigators, then comparing it to Tuesday, when we were with Elder Johnson; all 5 of our set lessons worked out, 2 being with members and the other 3 with new investigators. I feel like now, more than ever, I need to be obedient because I truly want to finish my mission strong and see the success that every missionary desires.

I love you guys,
Elder Stanley Scott Dye